A New Year
by ALMH
Summary: Next part in my Spooks fic for a year challenge. HR, set post 8.8 but no spoilers for the ep just speculation... Cast spoilers for 8.3.


He could hear a quiet but persistent tapping noise from outside his office, the same tapping that started before the others normally arrived in, bleary-eyed, to work, and ended long after they had left. He didn't need to look up to see who it was, to see who had resisted the charms of an evening in, or a night out with friends to see the New Year's fireworks. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

He looked at his watch, and then at the piles of file to be speedily read and digested, and then signed off. He then looked up at the woman still seated at her desk. Standing up, he left his office and walked over towards her desk.

"Not going out tonight Ruth?" he asked. She looked up at him.

"I'm guessing you're not."

"That wasn't what I asked."

She paused. "No, I'm not. It's just another day -"

"Or more specifically evening," he countered. She shook her head.

"Pedant." He resisted the urge to laugh, and instead looked once again at his watch.

"Guessing you didn't want to go out with the others either?"

"Lucas was the only one who was going out. Tariq was just going home, as was Ros."

Harry frowned. "I thought Ros said that she was busy this evening, I was meant to set up a meeting with the home secretary and neither of them could do this evening." Ruth kept her eyes safely averted from Harry.

"Well, maybe I heard wrongly then." Harry stared at her.

"There isn't..."

"Isn't what?" Ruth asked, still refusing to keep eye contact.

"Isn't anything going on between the two of them?" he asked.

Ruth took another file just as Harry grabbed it, preventing her from starting work on the file and continuing to ignore him. She was forced to look up. "Why do you think that?"

"Ruth, yes or no."

"To what?" He shook his head.

"Now you're being infuriating. Is there anything going on between the Home Secretary and Ros?"

"I'm not allowed to divulge that information," she answered, tugging harder at the file and taking it from him.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Harry... don't say anything to Ros. She's happy," Ruth pleaded. "I know you don't like him, but she obviously does, and at least we know he's not involved in any terrorist organisation -"

"I promise I won't Ruth." He checked his watch again.

"Harry, what is it with you and checking your watch at the moment?" she asked him.

"It's 5 minutes to," he said. "Come on."

She stared at him. "Come on where?"

"I'll show you, come on. We'll be back here soon enough, you won't miss much." He looked at her expectantly, and she had no choice but to stand up and follow him up the steps to a familiar place. As they stood on the roof memories of the moments that had happened here flooded Ruth's mind. She continued to follow him to one side, the side with the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament as a backdrop. They both stopped, and for a moment there was nothing. Then the sky turned red as a torrent of fireworks silently made their way up into the sky, and then exploded. All around them the fireworks illuminated the sky for five minutes, then slowly it ended. Both superstitiously made a wish, not knowing that their wishes were identical

"Happy New Year," Harry said to her. She smiled at him.

"Happy New Year." It was only then that they noticed that during the fireworks they had unconsciously moved closer together. They both looked at each other, not daring to make a move. Slowly they started to move slightly closer together.

Suddenly Harry's phone started to ring. Not looking away from Ruth, he managed to get his phone out of his pocket. He then briefly looked away to see the caller ID, and hung up.

"Lucas."

"Shouldn't you have answered it?" She asked.

"I don't know, should I?" Ruth took a step forwards.

"I'd... I'd better get going. I hadn't realised how late it was."

He nodded, realising the bubble had burst. "I might stay up here a bit longer."

"Ok... don't stay up here too long," she told him, walking to the stairs down from the roof. She didn't need to turn around to know that he was watching her leave.


End file.
